These days, there are a ton of special implements for peeling, pitting, and chopping various plant parts, olive pitters being among them. Turns out, to pit an olive, you don’t need a special uni-tasking implement, you just need a knife.

To easily pit a whole bunch of olives without a pitter, simply take the flat blade of a large knife (or spatula, or potato masher, saucer, any flat thing will do) and smoosh ‘em. The pit will pop right out, leaving the flesh behind. The result isn’t as pretty as what a pitter would produce, but it get’s the job done, and I bet you already have a knife (or spatula, or saucer, or flat thing) in your kitchen.